Elysian Embrace
by KaiBlueOtaku
Summary: A heavenly being now counts her Beloved among the ranks of the Fallen. A rare celestial alignment causes their two worlds to collide for the briefest of moments in time, and the angel will once again venture a forbidden rendezvous with her incubus lover. AU, UlquiHime, One-Shot, Complete.


Elysian Embrace

Summary: A heavenly being now counts her Beloved among the ranks of the Fallen. A rare celestial alignment causes their two worlds to collide for the briefest of moments in time, and the angel will once again venture a forbidden rendezvous with her incubus lover. AU, UlquiHime, One-Shot, Complete.

**_ DISCLAIMER: The talented Tite Kubo is the owner of Bleach, and all its characters. I am merely borrowing them to tell my story. I own only my plot and ideas. I receive no financial compensation for my writing._**

**_ WARNING: Lemon, or more like Lemonade? Very vague reference, not graphic._**

**_ A/N: Wow, I finally finished this. Believe it or not, this was transcribed (from hand-written) on my cell phone, and messaged to my husband in several chunks, on a slow day at work. Absurd._**

**_ This is a completely stand-alone AU one-shot story, which has absolutely nothing to do with any of my other stories or my personal AU. Here, Orihime is an angel, and Ulquiorra is an Incubus (a type of demon), who is specifically a Fallen angel, remaining in his Segunda Etapa in all times. Lots of symbology in this one. This story was inspired by an image I saw on DeviantArt, in which Orihime had angel wings, and Ulquiorra was in chains._**

**_ I offer thanks here to obsidianightmares, without whom this story would probably still be so far on the back burner that I had to fish it out from behind the stove to complete it. It didn't take much, really; just a nice review on a separate story, and a couple of friendly PM's to encourage me that this story was worth finishing, and that sad endings are ok. You invested the author-to-author "currency" of reviews and PM's, and this is the return on your efforts. I sincerely hope you're pleased with it. Thank you again._**

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The dark disc of the moon hung poised in perfect position to blot out the sun. She stood impatiently at the designated meeting place, eyes fixed on the sky, and the astronomical event about to commence. As the edge of the moon slid silently over the sun's blazing rim, a crack of thunder sounded, accompanied by a gust of smoldering wind, carrying the scent of sulfur across the placid meadow where she waited, causing the sheer and opalescent drape of her long and flowing shift to ripple restlessly. Her auburn hair fluttered, and she raised a feathered wing to shield herself from the heat of the blast, brimstone scorching shadowed ashes on the white plumes.

Peeking hesitantly over the top of her lowered wing, she could see that flames danced in the meadow, licking harmlessly amidst the tall prairie grass and the stalks of wild heather. The vegetation was not consumed, she knew, because the fire that was here was not of this realm. It was borne of a different plane of existence, and could not damage this place, a crossing between the worlds, only created for the briefest moment in time, called into existence as the parallax of the celestial spheres came into alignment with the hybrid eclipse.

Her liquid, silver eyes scanned in all directions, heart straining in her chest as a bird in a cage, seeking the freedom outside those constraints. It leapt in her as a dark figure materialized at last through the heat-distortion on the horizon. She ran toward it, coming up short within the draping privacy of a willow tree. An ancient wisteria twined up the trunk, the vines climbing up the branches as clusters of purple blossoms weighted the willow strands, spreading their sweet scent through the enclosure. The flowers rustled, brushing against leathery, black wings as a form bowed under the hanging branches to join her in the shadowy seclusion beneath the tree.

Her breath caught in her throat. It was always a shock to her at first, to see him like this, even though she knew... Every time they met like this though, when their worlds aligned at this fleeting juncture, some part of her mind hearkened back to the time _before_, and expected to see him _that_ way... Garbed in white, eyes of the richest jade, alabaster skin...

The initial shock must have evidenced itself on her expression, because he turned his head aside in shame. A black furred forearm rose slowly, trembling, and clawed fingers spread to cover a pallid face. "I am hideous," he whispered tremulously, his long, twisting horns rustling the wisteria as he bowed his head.

She stepped toward him, reaching a luminous hand out to stroke his cheek. "No," she assured him, a profound sadness in her words. "It's just... I forget."

He glanced up at her with cat-like, slitted golden irises awash in a sclera of the darkest green. His long black tail switched anxiously. "I wish that you did not have to see me like... This," he spat, motioning to himself with scorn.

"Please..." The mournful tone of her voice drew his eyes back to her, and he followed her gaze to the sky, where the eclipse was progressing. She turned to him with a look of sincerity. "We haven't much time... Let's not waste it like this." Her warm smile brought only sadness to his eyes, but he nodded, and drew her into a tight embrace.

He inhaled her scent and shut his eyes, fighting back the nostalgia which the odor of her threatened to drown him in. He shuddered and pulled back, grazing his dry, cracked, black and white lips against her moist, peach colored ones. They parted as his tongue transgressed there, entwining with hers in a deep, passionate kiss.

There was such longing and hunger in that kiss; eons of loneliness on both sides, spent waiting between these transitory alignments, passing them by all too soon. She sighed contentedly and melted into him, and he took her in his strong arms, laying her down in the soft, thick carpet moss. He crouched over her, his midnight wings shielding them in a secret cocoon. He carded his talons tenderly through her autumn colored tresses, seeming almost aglow with a light of their own. He lifted a few strands in his clawed hand and held them to his face, inhaling her scent, searing it freshly into his memory. It would be a long time again until the alignment came again, when the boundaries of their worlds softened and collided like this, creating this temporary place between the two opposing realms where they had come to meet, ever since...

_No_, he chided himself silently. No sense in dwelling on the past now. What was done, was done. There was no changing what had transpired. There was only this, now; these stolen moments of forbidden passion between them, in this place that was neither here nor there, but still enough of both for them to meet, when the precise conditions were satisfied.

His face was a cold, emotionless mask, but through the window of his eyes, the mournful ache of his soul was visible, and mirrored on her face. These taboo trysts of theirs were always rushed, and bittersweet. When the few short hours of the eclipse had passed, they would both have to return to their own worlds; her, ascending into the light... He, sinking back into darkness, and this threshold between the realms would cease to exist until the next alignment

He pressed down against her, a breathy sigh of joy leaving her lips just before her mouth sought his again, sliding her tongue against his in need. He straddled her hips with thighs covered in slick black fur, extending up to his waist and down to his feet, which terminated in talons much like those on his hands. Her sun-kissed fingers stroked the soft fur and he gave a sharp gasp, throwing his head back as he shut his eyes, the shadow of a furrow spreading across his brow as he struggled to control himself. She could feel the growing hardness of him, straining against her through the iridescent fabric of her flowing gown. Her breath grew short, and her eyes lidded heavily. A whisper of a moan escaped her, and was met with a strained, feral growl from her lover. She raised her hand to his cheek and gently stroked her thumb over the black lines that ran from his eyes down his pallid cheeks. He shuddered, seeming to gather his self-control momentarily at this gesture, and he gazed deeply at her, eyes pleading weakly.

Her permissive smile was but the prelude to a gaping moan of ecstasy as he trespassed upon her, their bodies melding in a tangle of limbs; his strong, leathery wings pressing her softly feathered ones down into the cool cushion of the mossy ground. Their bodies moved in tandem against each other, their breath rising in intensity until they both reached the pinnacle of rapture in a single, shared instant.

She thought she maybe heard him give a roar as he towered over her, but she was lost in herself. The annulus of the eclipse shone behind his head, crowning him in a silver halo, and for a moment, she saw him again as he had been before the Fall. His gaze locked on her and in his rapture, he could see his reflection in her eyes, including the ring of fire that wreathed his head in pale flames. He glanced back over his shoulder at the sky between the branches, and the obscured orb casting an eerie, otherworldly light on them both.

He leaned low over her and covered her body with his own, shielding her almost, as though they could hide somehow from the waning eclipse and remain somehow for another few moments in this secluded serenity. Her arms encircled his chest and she pulled him tightly to her, sighing.

"I wish I could have another place, with you," she murmured, planting tiny kisses on his ear and neck. She felt him press his face into her shoulder, and hot droplets landed on the bare skin there. Tears.

"Do not say such things," he cautioned, nuzzling into her.

"Don't _you_ wish that?" she asked, surprise in her tone.

His silence felt even heavier than his body pressing down upon her, and it was a relief when he finally spoke. "I do not wish you to be where I am."

"No, I meant a place like this," she said, stroking her fingers through his coal-black locks. "Somewhere not so transient. Somewhere we could stay..."

Silence was his only reply, and finally, he rolled off of her and lay alongside of her luminous form, his clawed talons finding her slender fingers and lacing with them as they both watched the waning of the eclipse through the tangle of the wisteria and willow strands.

"What's it like, there?" she asked suddenly, breaking the silence. He turned and pinned her with a wounded look, then fixed his eyes again on the sky. "I'm sorry," she whispered apologetically, knowing it was the sorest of subjects she could have chosen to discuss.

"Dark," he choked out, and she glanced at him in surprise that he had given any reply at all. "Emptiness, which fills the soul. Pain, beyond the wildest hope of comfort."

She pondered this, and then squeezed his hand. "How do you carry on?"

"There is no alternative," he said flatly. "There is no escape from it, but this..." He turned to her, and their gaze locked in a moment of soft and gentle warmth. "When I think it is too much, and that I will break... I see your face. And I count the days until I may hold you again." She smiled wanly and nodded in understanding, but he knew she could never understand the torment he endured. It was more than mere words could convey to one such as her. He himself could scarcely have believed such a thing, before he had experienced it for himself.

"Does it make it easier to bear?" she asked.

"Some days," he said, but they both heard more clearly the words he left unspoken; that on _other_ days, knowing that there was such relief to be found in this place between the two of them, made it all that much more difficult for him. Neither of them elaborated further on that point, and he was thankful for that.

The eclipse was waning, the disc of the moon passing from its conjunction, and he sat up. "I must go," he said, and rose to leave. He didn't look at her; he knew the sadness in her eyes without needing to look, and he could not bear to see it. This was always the worst part; the leaving. His leathery wing shielded him as he bowed low to leave the embrace of the willow, brushing the clusters of the sweet-smelling blossoms as he passed, causing them to release their scent. It collected and lingered in the enclosure.

She stood at the curtain of the willow strands, within a parting of them as they draped around the shelter of her wings. She watched him stalk away from her, toward the border. He crossed over the ground, crawling with ethereal flames, and stepped back onto the dry and parched ground of his own realm. Only then did he finally turn back to look upon her, at a distance.

She had followed.

Oh, how he was wounded by that look on her face, which he had not wished to see with such painful clarity. He reached his hand toward her, wishing to console her, but both knowing the time for such things was past them now. They would have to be satisfied with what comfort they had already stolen in the embrace of one another. She reached toward him in a mirror of his gesture, tears glistening in her eyes.

As the moon disengaged from the sun and their worlds shifted irrevocably apart again, he saw her enveloped in a warm, blinding light as she vanished from his sight. To her, he appeared to be slowly consumed, dissolving into ash as her fingertips _almost_ brushed his, but instead seemed only to send the cinders wafting on the wind until the conjunction was ended and there was nothing left but a precious mingled scent of wisteria and brimstone, clinging to her hair.

She sighed and bowed her head, turning away as even this place itself began to shimmer and fade. She lifted her face upward then, bathing it in the bright sunshine, and with graceful power she beat her mighty wings and rose into the air.

As the threshold world was peeled away and ceased to exist, she ascended, returning to her realm. She began to count the centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours and seconds until she would be able to see her Beloved again.

Call it what they may; to her, the greatest paradise, and the highest heaven she knew, was there in that Elysian Field, amongst the waving prairie grass and heather, beneath the sheltering shadow of an ancient wisteria entwined with a willow tree... There, in his embrace.

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**_ A/N: This was going to have a heavier lemon, as per my usual, but it just didn't seem to fit once I got to that point, so I glossed it over. This is the full version of this story, not a lemon-cut one._**

**_ I realize that this story is riddled with plot holes, but it's only a one-shot. A lot is left intentionally vague, because I just wanted the focus to be here and now, on this moment between them in this place. I didn't even use their names, if you noticed. That was intentional- this WAS written as UlquiHime, but I wanted to impart a sense of them being transcendent beyond such things as names. I'm a little sorry about the bittersweet ending on this, but I hope you can find comfort in knowing it's not their first meeting, and it won't be their last._**

**_ I make no money for my writing, but if you enjoyed this story, please, you may pay me for my efforts with the "Author Currency" of a nice review. The more specific and detailed a review it is, the more value it has to me. Your reviews are ultimately an investment in my writing, because each one encourages me toward spending more of myself and my time on writing new pieces._**

**_ Thank you for reading (and reviewing!). Speak to you again soon,_**

**_ ~KaiBlueOtaku_**


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